I’o 

rpi_^^3['Tl^iyH10’l  OOLiSniT 
^Norlh  tosrican  Secllsn 

Eternal  QuestiieaiEl 
The 

Orient  and  the 
Occident 


PROF.  R.  T.  STEVENSON.  D.D. 

CHAIR  OF  HISTORY 
OHIO  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY 


BOARD  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 
OF  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 
150  Fifth  Ave.,  New  York 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/eternalquestionOOstev 


The  Eternal  Question : The 
Orient  and  the  Occident 


PROF.  R.  T.  STEVENSON,  D.D. 
Chair  of  History 
Ohio  Wesleyan  University 


From  Marathon  to  Manila  is  a far  cry. 
Yet  the  two  are  connected  most  intimately. 
A swift  glance  into  the  long  vista  will  show 
clearly  enough  that  we  are  the  residuary 
legatees  of  the  hloody  field  where  Miltiades 
won  his  immortality.  Our  work  is  not  yet 
accomplished.  Not  yet  have  we  made  final 
settlement  of  what  Professor  E.  A.  Freeman 
calls  “The  Eternal  Question — the  Contact 
of  the  Orient  with  the  Occident.” 

It  is  more  than  a guess  at  the  truth,  or 
the  forcing  of  an  analogy — the  attempt  to 
discover  in  the  most  significant  thought — 
and  race — collisions  of  the  past  millenniums, 
illustrations  of  the  principle  named.  Yet 
herein  lies  a giant  likeness,  and  our  own 
day  with  all  its  tangled  values  and  problems 
will  gain  new  meaning  if  we  rightly  inter- 
pret the  stream  of  tendency  running  by  our 
very  doors. 

First. — Note  the  successive  and  dramatic 
unfoldings  of  the  contact  of  the  Orient  with 
the  Occident.  Greece  enters.  Persia  faces 
her  at  Marathon.  The  coarse  despotism  of 
the  East  is  about  to  stifle  the  energetic  in- 
3 


dividualism  of  the  West.  But  the  heroism 
of  the  men  of  Athens  turned  back  the  tide 
and  gave  to  the  human  mind  fuller  oppor- 
tunity for  unhampered  growth,  and  then 
Salamis  helped  to  swell  the  glad  chorus  of 
the  triumph  O'f  liberty  over  oppression.  And 
now  for  twenty-four  centuries  there  has  been 
a running  fight  between  these  two  forces. 
Some  have  decried  the  work  and  the  legacy 
of  Alexander,  but  all  unworthily.  He  seemed 
at  first  to  have  dedicated  himself  to  the 
purpose  of  merely  righting  the  wrongs  of  the 
Occident  against  the  pressure  of  the  East. 
The  liberalism  of  Grote  led  him  to  close  his 
famous  history  with  a dirge  over  the  fading 
away  of  democracy  in  Athens  under  the  hard 
hand  of  the  Macedonian.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  aristocracy  of  (Mitford  and  Thirlwall  led 
them  to  emphasize  the  mixed  good  of  Mace- 
donian tyranny.  History  is  too  big  for  any 
mere  partisan  interpretation.  Alexander  was 
an  agent  of  God.  His  early  ambition  was 
followed  by  a larger  spirit  in  all  likelihood. 
He  rose  with  his  victories  and  later  a 
broader  view  filled  his  eye.  He  saw  much 
good  in  the  East,  and  he  sought  to  mold  the 
two  into  one.  The  Greek  was  to  leaven  the 
inert  mass  of  the  East.  Though  he  could 
not  have  hoped  wholly  to  succeed  in  his  short 
twelve  years  of  toil,  yet  he  left  behind  him 
traces  of  a new  world  in  the  seventy  city- 
centers  of  culture  with  which  he  sought  to 
bind  the  East  to  the  thought-leader  of  the 
world.  Grote  has  scarcely  done  him  justice, 
regarding  him  too  easily  as  the  destroyer  of 
the  tendency  to  democracy  in  Europe. 
Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler  lifts  him  aloft  to  a 
fitter  place:  “No  single  personality  except- 
4 


ing  the  carpenter’s  Son  of  Nazareth  has  done 
so  much  to  make  the  world  we  live  in  what 
it  is  as  Alexander  of  Macedon.”  So  the 
world  moved  Greeceward. 

Second. — Rome  and  Carthage.  The  city 
on  the  south  shore  of  the  Mediterranean  was 
a branch  of  the  Semitic  race.  Less  fitted 
than  Rome  for  the  work  of  a stable  empire 
and  political  expansion,  it  fell  afoul  of  the 
more  virile  and  democratic  Roman  power. 
Carthage  did  not  possess  the  common  law, 
the  developing  language,  the  marvelous 
ability  of  Rome  to  melt  down  such  national 
antipathies  as  would  necessarily  front  a 
people  sent  to  conquer  the  world.  It  lacked, 
as  Mommsen  declares,  “the  instinct  of  po- 
litical life,  the  noble  idea  of  self-governed 
freedom.”  Its  government  was  one  of  capi- 
talists. The  majority  of  citizens  held  no 
property.  In  this  they  were  unlike  the  Ro- 
mans, and  could  not  fairly  represent  the 
trend  of  the  ages.  Merivale  contends  that 
Carthage  was  only  slightly  Oriental,  but  this 
view  is  set  aside  by  the  great  German,  Momm- 
sen, and  others.  So  the  Punic  Wars  saved 
Europe  from  becoming  a dependency  of  Asia. 
Hannibal  may  win  the  favor  of  the  school 
boy,  hut  the  statesmanship  of  the  Scipios 
was  pointing  the  better  way  for  the  world- 
march. 

Third. — Teuton  and  Hun.  If  ever  one  is 
tempted  to  turn  away  from  the  centuries  in 
which  Rome  was  staggering  to  her  ruin, 
either  in  disgust  over  the  horrors  of  strife 
or  inability  to  gather  up  into  unity  the  scat- 
tered bits  of  apparently  unconnected  events, 
let  him  rightly  conceive  the  fifth  century  as 
an  open  door  to  the  modern  world  and  he 
5 


will  find  himself  drinking  at  a fountain  of 
limitless  power  to  satisfy  the  deepest  thirst 
of  the  student  of  history.  The  commotions 
far  out  upon  the  plains  of  Scythia,  begun 
hack  in  the  days  of  Julius  Caesar,  were  now 
focused  upon  the  Italian  peninsula.  The 
Germans  were  pushed  downwards  by  the 
Slavonians  and  the  Scythians,  the  latter 
true  exponents  of  the  mistborn  Orientals, 
and  having  little  in  common  with  the  more 
immediate  and  first  conquerors  of  the  fron- 
tiers of  Rome.  Alaric  the  Teuton  came  upon 
Rome  not  as  a destructionist,  but  as  a 
builder.  Attila  the  Hun  fell  upon  Rome  not 
as  a builder,  but  as  a scourge  and  a de- 
stroyer. The  awful  crisis  both  for  Rome 
and  the  Church  had  come  when  the  shaggy 
hordes  of  Attila  met  the  united  German 
peoples  on  the  vast  plains  of  Chalons  in  451 
A.  D.  But  the  tempest  passed  away  and  left 
only  the  cycles  of  tradition,  part  of  which 
in  Germany  later  formed  the  germ  of  the 
national  epic,  the  Nibelungenlied.  The  Ger- 
man successor  of  Rome  took  up  the  work  of 
the  conqueror  of  the  world.  The  West  still 
held  off  the  East.  Civilization  lagged,  but  did 
not  entirely  surrender  the  task  set  before  it. 

Fourth. — Islam  and  Christianity.  Nearly 
three  centuries  after  the  preceding  crisis  the 
East  and  the  West  met  in  deadly  conflict  on 
the  field  of  Tours,  in  the  year  732.  There 
had  arisen  another  prophet  coming  out  of 
Arabia,  and  the  orphan  sheeptender,  the  man 
of  commanding  presence,  with  piercing  eyes, 
and  of  fluent  speech  and  pleasing  ways,  had 
entered  the  lists  as  one  of  the  world  leaders. 
In  a few  years  the  fanatic  followers  of  Mo- 
hammed had  swept  across  the  Northern  coasts 
6 


of  Africa,  had  leaped  the  Straits  of  Hercules, 
and  had  camped  upon  the  southern  slopes  of 
the  Pyrenees.  Just  a century  after  the  death 
of  the  prophet  his  followers  faced  the  Chris- 
tian host  of  Charles  Martel  in  France,  at 
Tours,  732,  and  their  defeat  by  the  “Ham- 
merer” saved  the  civilization  of  Western 
Europe  from  the  hard  hand  of  Islam.  Less 
known  than  the  repulse  of  the  Crescent  by 
the  Cross  at  Tours  was  the  almost  equally 
great  event  of  the  defeat  of  the  Saracens  in 
718  before  the  gates  of  Constantinople.  The 
invasion  of  Islam  was  turned  hack  through 
the  valor  of  Leo  the  Isaurian,  else  the  Chris- 
tian religion  had  been  swept  with  European 
civilization  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  This 
triumph  marks  one  of  the  most  signal  events 
in  world  history.  Again  the  East  went  down 
before  the  West. 

Fifth. — Crusader  and  Saracen.  The  salva- 
tion of  Constantinople  did  not  prevent  the 
Arabian  from  controlling  the  East,  with  the 
exception  of  Constantinople,  which  stood  as 
a mighty  buffer  to  protect  Christendom  for 
over  a thousand  years.  But  with  the  re- 
vival of  the  iniquitous  treatment  of  Chris- 
tian pilgrims  to  the  holy  sepulcher  by  the 
Mahometan  owners  of  Palestine,  and  the 
knowledge  of  the  divisions  among  the  East- 
ern powers,  it  was  deemed  opportune  by 
Christians  to  fall  upon  their  rivals  for  the 
world  control — Whence  issued  two  centuries 
of  crusades  against  the  infidels,  the  West 
against  the  East.  Though  the  West  held  the 
kingdom  of  Jerusalem  for  a hundred  years, 
yet  in  the  end  the  crusaders  fell  back  upon 
their  own  lands  to  bring  out  of  the  disorder 
of  feudalism  the  centralization  of  modern 
7 


nations  in  Western  Europe,  leaving  the 
Holy  Land  to  its  infidel  masters.  The  East 
appeared  to  have  held  its  own. 

Sixth. — The  Coming  of  the  Ottoman  Turks. 
These  new  masters  of  the  Bast  were  first 
heard  of  about  the  time  the  Crusades  came 
to  a close,  not  far  from  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  They  gradually  swal- 
lowed up  the  provinces  of  the  empire  in 
Asia,  and  began  to  batter  the  walls  of  the 
Imperial  City  on  the  Golden  Horn.  Under 
the  awful  vigor  of  Bajazet,  surnamed  the 
Thunderbolt,  all  the  Christian  States  of 
Southeastern  Europe  seemed  about  to  disap- 
pear. Under  the  greatest  of  the  Ottoman 
sultans,  Mahomet  the  Conqueror,  the  long 
siege  of  Constantinople  began,  and  on  May 
the  29th,  1453,  it  was  taken  by  storm.  The 
thousand-year  capital  of  Christendom  now 
became  the  head  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and 
Justinian’s  wonderful  Church  of  Saint  So- 
phia became  a Mahometan  mosque.  The 
conqueror  went  on  to  plan  the  conquest  of 
Western  Europe,  but  it  was  saved  from  this 
dread  fate  by  his  death  in  1481.  Between 
the  East  and  the  West  the  balance  hung 
trembling.  Islam  had  swung  one  jaw  of  its 
tremendous  vise  into  the  center  of  France 
in  the  eighth  century,  and  now  the  left  jaw 
was  thrust  up  into  the  plains  of  Hungary. 
Still  the  shadow  of  the  Cross  rested  upon 
Western  Europe  not  to  be  pushed  away  by 
the  Crescent. 

How  well  I recall  the  bright  light  in  the 
eyes  of  Dr.  Long,  the  scholar  of  many  lan- 
guages at  Robert  College,  as  he  told  me  of 
the  effort  of  the  Moslem  conquerors  of  Con- 
stantinople to  obliterate  every  evidence  of 
8 


the  Christian  character  of  the  great  Church 
of  Saint  Sophia,  and  that  they  had  failed  to 
cover  up  the  Greek  inscription  over  the 
great  front  door  of  the  church,  possibly  not 
knowing  the  meaning  of  the  lettering.  It 
was  the  text,  “I  am  the  Door;  by  Me  if  any 
man  enter  in,  he  shall  be  saved.”  There 
it  stands  to-day,  a glorious  prophecy  of  the 
recovery  of  the  greatest  Christian  edifice  on 
earth  to  pure  worship  some  day  when  the 
Turk  shall  no  more  occupy  the  city  of  the 
Golden  Horn. 

Seventh. — Expansion  Westward.  Was  it 
not  remarkable  that  in  the  very  year  in 
which  Mahomet  the  Conqueror  died,  1481, 
the  Catholic  kings,  as  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella were  called,  began  a war  with  Granada, 
whose  king  had  invaded  Castilian  territory, 
and  the  recovery  of  Granada  in  the  year  1492 
was  thought  almost  to  make  up  for  the  loss 
of  Constantinople  at  the  other  frontier  of 
Europe?  Now  Spain  was  easily  the  leading 
power  in  Europe.  To  her  fell  the  glory 
which  memory  evermore  renders  of  the  dis- 
covery of  the  New  World.  The  lines  of 
trade  to  the  East  had  been  cut  off.  Colum- 
bus dreamed  not  of  a new  world,  but  of  re- 
establishing connection  with  the  East,  and  he 
died  not  realizing  what  he  had  found.  Yet 
we  do  not  dwell  upon  the  growth  of  Spain 
for  evidence  that  we  are  on  the  trail  of 
Providence.  Her  decline  begins  with  her 
triumph.  Another  race  looms  large  on  the 
horizon.  In  the  same  decade  in  which  the 
Turk  got  footing  on  the  Golden  Horn,  the 
Englishman  drew  off  from  the  fields  of 
France,  and  ended  the  Hundred  Years’  War. 
God  had  other  work  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  to 
9 


do.  He  was  to  go  East  by  way  of  the 
Western  World.  Of  the  five  Western  Euro- 
pean powers  to  whom  fell  the  discovery  of 
America — Spain,  Portugal,  Holland,  France, 
and  England — all  lost  out  but  the  last  in 
nearly  all  that  has  given  mastery  to  race  and 
institutions.  It  is  not  at  air  needful  to  re- 
cite commonplace  details.  Yet  only  by 
reckoning  them  in  their  proper  order  is  one 
able  to  read  the  writing  of  prophecy  and  to 
determine  the  trend  of  the  path  that 
stretches  away  into  the  unknown.  In  1400 
the  Anglo-Saxon  ruled  less  than  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  thousand  square  miles 
of  territory  and  four  million  people.  To-day 
fifteen  million  and  a bit  over  of  square  miles 
are  under  the  control  of  the  Anglo-Saxon, 
and  nearly  a half-billion  of  people  turn  their 
eyes  either  to  the  English  Jack  or  to  “Old 
Glory”  for  cure  of  the  blindness  of  despot- 
ism, superstition,  idolatry.  The  Latin  races 
number  about  two  hundred  and  fifty-five 
millions,  with  an  extent  of  slightly  less  than 
fifteen  million  square  miles.  The  Slav  num- 
bers one  hundred  and  forty  millions  of  peo- 
ple, covering  a little  less  than  nine  million 
square  miles  of  territory.  The  German 
holds  sway  over  two  million  and  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  square  miles  of  ter- 
ritory, with  a population  of  one  hundred  and 
thirty-five  millions  of  people. 

After  five  hundred  years  the  weakest  of 
these  four  at  the  start  has  risen  to  the  first 
place,  and  dominates  the  future,  so  far  as 
mortal  vision  can  scan  the  unknown. 

Eighth. — The  New  Occident-Orient.  A 
world  circle  has  been  swept.  Virility  and 
somnolence  have  had  strange  meeting  In 
10 


the  last  half-century.  The  younger  West  has 
picked  up  a Book  from  the  older  East  and 
now  offers  it  to  the  sleepy  races  of  the  Pa- 
cific. Also  it  tells  it  how  to  make  battle- 
ships. It  is  not  strange  if  the  latter,  more 
purely  Western,  outcome  of  progress,  finds 
warmer  welcome  than  the  Book  which  the 
West  has  inherited  from  the  East.  Is  it  not 
worth  remarking  that  the  leaders  of  Western 
Europe  hold  chief  place  both  in  shipyards 
and  printing  shops?  What  the  West  has  fur- 
nished the  East  is  pithily  set  forth  in  an  in- 
cident touching  one-half  of  the  vast  endow- 
ment of  Japan.  She  is  called  the  “copy-cat” 
in  some  quarters.  A French  officer  was  re- 
fused the  privilege  of  inspection  of  some 
Japanese  field  artillery.  The  suave  Japanese 
officer  observed,  “You  must  appreciate  the 
importance  to  us  of  keeping  our  military 
secrets.” 

“Your  secrets,  bosh!”  replied  the  undiplo- 
matic Frenchman,  disgust  getting  the  better 
of  his  manners.  “As  if  you  hadn’t  stolen 
everything  you  have  from  us.” 

Be  that  as  it  may,  Europe  goes  to  Asia 
with  both  hands  open,  in  the  one  a printed 
Book,  in  the  other  an  Iron  ship.  And  the 
world’s  future  hangs  in  the  balance.  Mil- 
lard’s late  “America  and  the  Far  Eastern 
Question”  contends  that  the  rise  of  Japan, 
her  mastery  of  Russia  in  battle,  her  economic 
activity,  her  towering  ambition,  her  un- 
doubted subtlety,  mark  her  as  the  foremost 
figure  in  the  most  important  international 
issue  with  which  the  world  now  has  to  deal. 
The  destiny  of  the  whole  world  has  been  cast 
into  the  scale.  In  1906  he  traveled  through 
the  East  and  everywhere  he  found  evidences 
11 


of  a growing  “Pan-Orientalism.”  Japan  has 
been  a most  vigorous  developer  of  this  new 
Eastern  spirit.  The  immediate  storm- 
center,  so  far  as  America  is  concerned,  is 
Manchuria,  where  we  have  the  largest  com- 
mercial field  of  opportunity  open  to  us.  The 
“open-door”  policy,  for  which  we  have  strug- 
gled with  fair  success,  must  be  maintained, 
even  though  Japan,  Russia,  France,  and  even 
England  appear  to  stand  together  to  ob- 
struct our  free  path.  That  Germany  does 
not  seem  to  be  anxious  to  line  up  with  these 
in  opposing  our  commercial  advance  is 
worth  remarking.  On  the  other  hand,  Eng- 
land is  showing  signs  that  she  is  not  free  to 
keep  the  full  measure  of  her  treaties  with 
Japan,  for  in  Australia  there  is  protest, 
vigorous  too,  against  whatever  oversight  of 
the  great  colony  the  mother  may  indulge  in 
making  pact  with  the  ambitious  Japanese. 

The  question  of  the  preservation  or  the 
disintegration  of  the  Chinese  Empire  occu- 
pies a foremost  place  upon  the  table  of 
diplomacy,  both  in  Europe  and  America,  and 
dull  must  the  man  be  who  thinks  for  a 
second  that  it  matters  not  to  America  what 
becomes  of  the  great  yellow  people  and 
their  domain.  Some  broad-minded  Chinese 
officials  claim  that  a way  out  of  China’s 
fiscal  difficulties  may  be  found  by  engaging 
the  help  of  American  and  English  capital- 
ists, conceding  as  they  do  that  these  two 
nations  have  no  ulterior  designs  upon  the 
unity  and  the  peace  of  the  empire.  The 
great  moderate  reformer.  Yuan  Shih-K’ai, 
surrounded  himself  with  men  trained  in 
American  schools.  The  restoration  of  the 
“Boxer”  indemnity  to  China  by  the  United 
12 


States  demonstrates  the  friendly  sentiment 
of  this  nation  towards  China.  The  “Hay” 
doctrine  of  1899,  securing  China’s  political 
integrity  and  the  “open  door,”  has  become  a 
part  of  an  international  covenant.  And 
though  great  crises  in  international  conflict 
may  imperil  this  doctrine,  it  may  be  granted 
that  if  the  United  States  stands  Arm  and 
keeps  eyes  open,  no  other  people  will  rashly 
venture  to  disavow  the  doctrine. 

We  are  in  the  Philippines  and  shall,  under 
God,  stay  there  until  he  tells  us  it  is  time  to 
leave,  and  we  will  not  go  until  American 
ideals  and  institutions  are  imbedded  in  the 
faith  and  practice  of  the  islanders.  The 
Panama  Canal  goes  on  toward  completion. 
Its  future  will  be  dictated  by  the  American 
nation.  It  will  serve  our  mills  for  a good 
turn  in  the  cheap  transportation  of  millions 
of  rails  for  the  vast  expansion  which  is 
sure  to  take  place  in  China  in  the  next 
twenty  years.  Good  authority  declares  that 
China  will  lead  the  world  in  the  next  fifth 
of  a century  in  the  matter  of  building  rail- 
ways. Are  we  to  have  no  part  in  that  ex- 
pansion? If  our  diplomatists  are  keen-eyed 
enough  they  will  see  that  Russia  and  Japan 
do  not  dictate  without  protest  the  building 
of  railroads  in  Manchuria,  when  we  possess 
the  good  will  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  and 
even  though  France  and  England  joined 
hands  recently  to  urge  China  to  be  cautious 
and  make  no  agreement  with  America  with- 
out first  securing  the  approval  of  Russia  and 
Japan,  we  must  stand  fast. 

The  above  puts  the  emphasis  upon  the 
economic  phase  of  history.  Great  as  this 
is,  it  is  not  all.  The  American  and  English 
13 


Bible  Societies  lead  the  world  in  their  dis- 
tribution of  Bibles.  Clayton  S.  Cooper 
writes  with  unwonted  fervor  of  the  mere 
facts  of  the  spread  of  the  Bible  in  the  East. 
Last  year  1,900  college  men  enrolled  in  vol- 
untary Bible  classes  in  Japan.  Lately  D. 
Willard  Lyon  was  appointed  National  Bible 
secretary  for  China.  The  day  classes  of  the 
Chinese  Young  Women’s  Christian  Associa- 
tion in  Shanghai  make  a picture  of  moment 
to  the  believer  in  the  supremacy  of  the  Word 
of  God.  In  Korea  the  only  English  book 
that  is  fully  translated  is  the  Bible.  It  is 
difficult  to  supply  enough  Bibles  at  twenty- 
two  cents  each  to  meet  the  demand.  In  1906 
one  church  ordered  twenty  thousand.  Every 
copy  was  sold  before  a page  was  printed. 
The  Cabinets  of  Europe  are  watching  the 
new  awakening  in  the  East  with  eager  con- 
cern. Western  influences  are  apparent  in 
every  quarter.  Not  only  in  the  economic  and 
political  fleld  is  the  East  bending  its  thought 
in  what  has  been  styled  its  “copy-cat”  spirit 
towards  the  West,  but  also  in  the  realm  of 
the  spirit,  and  the  Bible  is  getting  back  to  its 
own.  It  has  been  a long  time  making  the 
march  from  Syria  and  the  Mediterranean  to 
China  and  Thibet  by  way  of  Europe,  but  it 
has  gone  step  by  step  with  the  main  forces 
of  history.  It  has  joined  hands  with  the  in- 
evitable in  human  evolution.  The  impera- 
tive of  Providence  is  back  of  it.  Western 
Europe  and  America  invented  the  iron  ship 
of  war  and  gave  it  to  the  people  of  the  sun- 
set. Is  it  at  all  likely  that  the  Book  with 
which  the  march  has  been  made  for  nearly 
two  thousand  years  will  be  left  behind  for 
the  future?  Not  unless  we  turn  lunatics. 

14 


What  the  new  Orient  will  be  depends 
largely  upon  the  attitude  of  America  and 
England.  Last  year  eighty-five  per  cent  of 
the  money  raised  for  foreign  missions  in  the 
Protestant  world  was  contributed  by  the 
Anglo-Saxons.  Is  their  sense  of  obligation 
to  shrivel?  Does  doing  the  right  thing  tend 
to  make  it  more  foolish  to  continue  doing  it? 
Does  finding  the  best  method  after  centuries 
of  experiment  develop  skepticism  of  its 
workableness?  Is  China’s  adoption  of  the 
English  language  for  international  inter- 
course a sign  that  China  believes  another 
tongue  is  to  rise  to  supremacy  in  the  new 
future?  Is  the  surrender  of  the  “Boxer” 
indemnity  by  the  United  States  to  China  to 
ill  affect  her  in  the  future  and  lead  her  to 
suspect  us  of  an  unbrotherly  spirit?  The 
war  of  1894  saw  China  weak.  She  is  fast 
recovering,  even  though  for  a time  Japan 
exercises  a controlling  influence  in  her  af- 
fairs, and  there  will  come  a time  when  she 
will  emerge  out  of  the  sad  welter  of  conser- 
vatism. What  a day  has  come!  The  Prince 
Regent  summoned  the  first  National  Assem- 
bly to  meet  at  Peking  October  3,  1910.  That 
date  will  rank  for  China  with  the  July  4th 
of  American  history.  Nor  is  that  all.  When 
1913  shall  have  witnessed  China  starting 
forth  with  her  tested  and  approved  repre- 
sentative form  of  government,  she  will  then 
be  able  to  point  with  noble  pride  to  her  suc- 
cessful emulation  of  the  great  American  Re- 
public which  began  its  life  In  1789.  China 
is  moving  fast.  That  Statesman-Bishop,  J. 
W.  Bashford,  has  declared  that  no  people 
has  done  so  much  in  1910  as  this  mighty 
Oriental  folk.  “Judged  by  its  influence  up- 
15 


on  the  future  of  the  human  race,  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  the  progress  which  the 
four  hundred  million  Chinese  have  made 
during  the  past  year  (1910),  in  representa- 
tive government,  in  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
and  in  the  opium  reform,  will  in  the  judg- 
ment of  future  historians  outweigh  the  prog- 
ress which  any  other  nation  has  made  dur- 
ing 1910.” 

The  day  dawns  indeed  for  the  Orient.  For 
her  no  more  despotic  autocrat.  For  her  the 
fair  model  of  Anglo-Saxon  constitutional  gov- 
ernment. For  her  no  more  the  flaming 
dragon  terror.  For  her  the  fair  Pace  of  the 
Christ  upon  her  peaceful  banners.  For  her 
a share  in  what  has  made  us  worthy  of  per- 
manent power,  that  of  being  reckoned  as 
the  Christ-Bearer,  the  Christopher,  of  the 
world.  God  grant  it  may  soon  come. 

If  the  moral  support  given  her  by  England 
and  America,  and  not  without  its  physical 
basis  too,  shall  continue,  the  world  will 
awake  some  day  to  read  a new  motto  for  the 
statesman,  “As  goes  China  so  goes  the 
Orient.”  Then  the  fine  feeling  with  which 
the  West  will  greet  the  East  is  sung  in  the 
lines  of  Kipling: 

“0  the  East  is  East,  and  the  West  is  West, 
And  never  the  twain  will  meet 
Till  earth  and  sky  stand  presently 
Before  the  Judgment  seat; 

But  there  is  neither  East  nor  West, 

Nor  border,  nor  breed,  nor  birth. 

When  two  strong  men  stand  face  to  face. 
Though  they  come  from  the  end  of  the 
earth.” 


Delaware,  Ohio. 


16 


